


Round Here

by Toricchi



Category: Dragon Knights | Dragon Kishi-dan
Genre: Ficlet, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-09
Updated: 2010-01-09
Packaged: 2017-10-06 00:41:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/47782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toricchi/pseuds/Toricchi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The people Kai-stern meets on his travels.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Round Here

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written sometime mid-late 2005.

The tavern's busy tonight. He's being run off his feet with customers, but he likes it this way. It keeps his mind from anything more troublesome than whether the roast lamb _with_ vegetables but _without_ gravy was supposed to go to table one or five and providing a little extra incentive for the guys at the bar to keep their hands to themselves.

 

The snow's starting to melt as winter gives way to spring and the roads open up again, so there are lots of new faces Kai-stern doesn't recognize; the common room a messy spill of lilting Hyurayian drawl, the traditional bright clothes of Kuulta and the clipped, elegant appearance of minor (very minor, if they were frequenting a tavern like this) nobles of Dragoon. And someone he just can't quite place.

 

Golden hair and green eyes aren't endemic to any particular region Kai-stern knows, and he's been just about everywhere there is to be. That's why he's working here until he thinks of something else to do, just because it's a new experience. The man, though, isn't from around here, otherwise he wouldn't be by himself. Here, more than anyone else, where footpads and worse lurk waiting to pounce on the unwary, everyone learns the truth in the saying "there's safety in numbers." The ones that take longer to learn are the ones that don't last. Kai-stern was a quick study. He doubts the pretty boy is so smart.

 

But he's finished with his plate and is now looking speculatively at Kai-stern, and Kai-stern admits that he _is_ very pretty, even if he is younger than he usually likes them. Kai-stern has twenty-one years and as much experience as he could cram into them; this boy looks like he celebrated his sixteenth birthday last week and had never been inside a tavern before from the way he watched everything in fascination.

 

"Are you finished, sir?" he asks, hand hovering over the plate.

 

"Hmmm? Oh, yes," he says, pushing it toward Kai-stern. His hand brushes Kai-stern's warmly, setting his skin tingling. Only a lifetime of practicing the perfect poker face allows him to _not_ jump back and drop the plate.

 

It's been a while since he'd felt that kind of electricity. He'd thought he'd lost it, but here it was again, from a green-eyed stranger in a tiny, dirty pub out in the sticks. It was about the last place he'd expected.

 

He pastes a smile on his face and takes a deep breath to steady himself. "Have you been given a room yet, sir?"

 

"I only dropped in for a quick meal," the blond says, watching Kai-stern's face carefully.

 

Kai-stern looks around. The men at the bar are preoccupied with the latest round of drinks, and the card game in the corner is drowning out any attempts at conversation. "My shift ends in fifteen minutes. Meet me outside and I'll set you up with a place to stay tonight."

 

He nods, his smile magnetic.

 

With anyone else, it might not be so casual, but Kai-stern's done this before, and he's beginning to suspect that the blond, as young as he might look, has too, because his movements are sure as he presses Kai-stern into the stone wall, the hand unbuttoning his trousers smooth and even. He's good at it. Too good, Kai-stern thinks hazily, as he strokes him long and hard and slow, Kai-stern's skin burning under his slightest touch; there's something not normal about this guy.

 

Kai-stern rocks back against him and kisses the corner of his mouth. He's good at this too; if there had been awards given out at school for excellence in fucking faceless strangers in alleyways he might have actually succeeded at something and made his daddy proud in the end after all.

 

"Come with me," he murmurs against Kai-stern's ear, and he's about to laugh that there isn't much chance of that _not_ happening now, when he opens his eyes to green ones staring at him intently, and realizes that isn't quite what he means.

 

He wants to. As the hand wrapped around his cock fists him more urgently, he thinks he'd go anywhere in the world this man asked, and he doesn't even know his name.


End file.
